Theresa May has promised to put worker representatives on company boards and curb boardroom pay in a speech in Birmingham launching her campaign to become Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister on 11 July 2016. Her speech – which has now taken on more significance as her last rival pulled out of the contest a few hours later – sets out a raft of policies designed to 'get tough on corporate irresponsibility':
'The FTSE, for example, is trading at about the same level as it was eighteen years ago and it is nearly 10% below its high peak. Yet in the same time period executive pay has more than trebled and there is an irrational, unhealthy and growing gap between what these companies pay their workers and what they pay their bosses.
So as part of the changes I want to make to corporate governance, I want to make shareholder votes on corporate pay not just advisory but binding. I want to see more transparency, including the full disclosure of bonus targets and the publication of “pay multiple” data: that is, the ratio between the CEO’s pay and the average company worker’s pay. And I want to simplify the way bonuses are paid so that the bosses’ incentives are better aligned with the long-term interests of the company and its shareholders.'